the journey of becoming a teacher

Month

March 2016

Lessening planning can be very challenging for some teachers when trying to add the ISTE standards into the plan. Not all teachers are as technological as others, not all have the same resources as others do. I belive the first step is to not get overwhelmed. These standards can be easily be achieved as well as very beneficial to our students. Here is a blog post on editorial to help teachers get started on technology integration in their classroom. I believe another great tool is each other, weather that be Pinterest, teachers in your school or your even your old Technology in Education professors website. Using others ideas, tips, tricks, tools and technology knowledge can make all the difference in your lesson plan ease. My last bit of advice is to not be affriad, don’t be affriad of change, new ideas or even the unknown. Technology will be forever evolving and we have to accept that and embrace it!

This week we made a short 30 second commercial for WOU in class, edited and posted it to YouTube for the class to watch and enjoy. Although the videos were a little rough with the short amount of time we had, they were fun t make and was a nice change of pace to the normal classroom structure. Multimedia project, especially video creation and podcasting, can be extremely valuable in the classroom in any grade! They can be used to make digital book reviews or even better, a book trailer. Multimedia projects could mean skits, commercials, new broadcast, recording a science experiment, a video diary, and so on.

Erin Macpherson gives a great list of her top 10 favorite uses of podcast in the classroom. Being that podcast are my least favorite of the two multimedia forms we are discussing it is nice to get some ideas from other teachers. Over on Simplek12 website, I love the idea they have for podcasting. Not only is it a great tool to use as an assignment but it can be a great resource for teachers to make. The suggestion that I loved the most was their #1.

Prepare Substitute Teachers
Podcasts present an excellent way for teachers to prepare ahead of time and leave instructions for substitute teachers. Podcasts could allow you to suggest subject matter that should be covered as well as demonstrate how a typical class period runs.

Record a podcast with a week’s worth of instructions for your substitute teacher to use with your English class. Break the podcasts down so that there is one for each day you will be absent. Have instructions about class assignments for diagramming sentences, homework instructions for reading assignments, class assignments for presenting a poem, and a day for class discussion about the book they read.

Another great idea from their site was to keep absent students up to date. Now this might be tedious when your having to do it every day because someone is always absent…and always asking “Teacher, what did I miss last week?” To take that burden off your shoulders, you can use a podcast!

Create School Announcements
Podcasts can be a really fun and creative way for your students to make classroom or school announcements, no matter what age they are! When you incorporate podcasts into your announcements, students can be kept informed with what is going on around them.

Let your students host a morning news outlet where they can showcase podcasts they have created. Students should be encouraged to interview their peers, the administration, and other teachers to find newsworthy stories to report on. Schools can use the podcasts to make announcements via their Web site.